At the recent Zildjian Day, in Birmingham, England, Steve
Smith displayed his fastly expanding knowledge and understanding of the
history of drumming, which recently has been one of his main sources of
inspiration. In a ten minute solo, he played elements of pretty much each
and every drum style of the past 75 years, including heavy metalish double
bass drum routines, cymbal fanning, four on the floor, flashy fusion licks
and much, much more. Apart from numerous clinics and a short tour with
Steps, Steve has been working on an idea for a solo drum project, on a
recent cd with Vital Information and....

Easier done than Said, the previous cd, released on Blue
Note in 1992, was hardly available in Europe. `Blue Note is a big label
and I guess I was too small in their scheme. I had a manager - and I don't
want to blame it all on him[laughs] -, but we went into too many business
politics - and at this point in my life, in my way of seeing business,
I don't want to complicate my life with things like that. If there's a
record company that's interested in my music and believes in me as an artist,
then I don't need to shove around trying to find the `best deal in the
world'. Vera Brandes has always demonstrated a consistency of being interested,
so I decided to get back into it and try to get working with Vital Information,
get this record out and get some tours done. And then, out of nowhere,
has come up this idea for a Journey reunion. Next summer we'll do a major
US tour, and we'll be recording a new album between now and then. That's
pretty much going to tie me up for a year. So Vital Information, again...
I will put the record out, but I won't be able to really tour behind that.
When there's time for a tour, we might as well call that a reunion too,
by then! I definitely want to tour, and the other guys want it too. It's
still the same guys. Jeff Andrews is out touring with Mike Stern and Dave
Weckl, and Tom Coster and Frank Gambale are making there own records.'`
`We're even talking about maybe doing something in the middle of this Journey
tour. Steve Perry doesn't want to do more than two or three days in a row,
and then have some days off. Maybe we can book something with Vital Information
in between, in the weekends, in clubs in the cities we're playing. Do something
fun and different, like that.'

RAY OF HOPE

`For Ray of Hope we did something we never did before:
we all got together in a rehearsal studio and just jammed, rock band type
style, coming up with grooves and ideas. We wrote at least half the record
that way, which was nice. Actually, we were surprised, in a way. Some of
the tunes we came up with that way are actually commercially type sounding,
you know. They're not as out or as weird as we thought they might be. It's
kind of a melodic heavy groove and nice melodies, and Jeff and Frank got
really into writing some sophisticated harmonies and melodies. Frank and
I also got together with Narada Michael Walden and wrote a song. Frank
and Jeff brought in some songs that they wrote, and there's Jeff and Tom
doing a duet of the Horace Silver ballad Peace, just for bass and keyboards.
So we ended up playing all the music together, in the studio. The one before,
Easier done than Said, we kind of constructed, with computers and so on.
With this one we wanted to just play it, with a click track for most of
the songs. The click track feels real comfortable at this moment. It's
like a little ruler that helps you draw a straight line. [laughs].'

FUSION PIE

Is Ray of Hope Vital Information's way of trying to grab
a piece of the fusion pie, or should it be seen as an ultimate musical
expression of the members of the band?

`That's one of the things about that band, and then especially
about Jeff Andrews. He can groove and he can swing, and whatever I want
to play, he's right there. Having Tom and Frank on top of that, we are
just at home in all those different styles. It sounds as if it works, instead
of just "jointed".'

BLUES INFLECTION

`Most of the projects I get called for are focussed. They're
rock, or they're jazz type of projects, or something. If it's my own thing
I want it to be fluid enough to be able to go to all these different places.
That feels good to me, rather than just living in one of the worlds.' `The
more aware I get of the musical roots and directions, the more I want to
bring that to the band. We have been talking about that recently. So on
the NEXT record, we want to introduce this kind of soul and blues inflection
much more consciously. I have been checking out different quartets with
the same configuration as Vital Information, like Booker T and the MG's.
That was an instrumental band that was real soulful, or The Meters, with
the same kind of configuration, you know.

We'd like to bring some of that influence in the music.
More of that R&B feeling, New Orleans rhythms, and that...'

SOLO DRUMS

`And in between I want to do a solo drum recording. The
solo I recorded for Ray of Hope is kind of like a first step for me to
get myself motivated to do a whole collection of the solo drum pieces I
do in my clinics, and have them on a cd. I have been gathering information
and inspiration that will maybe come around again in another cycle of ...
new ideas. I feel pretty full of them, and now I'm trying to, I guess,
express it, get it out in the musical world.'

The solo on Ray of Hope is something you debuted at the
Drummer's Day at the Dutch Music Fair, some years ago.

`How it came about was that I was not even trying to create
anything per se. I was just at home, playing my drums, fooling around.
All of a sudden I started hearing little melodies, and then I just started
experimenting with the idea of form, actually constructing a form, similar
to what Max did with these pieces: he created a little melody and a form,
and then a drum solo became like a piece of music... That's what I started
experimenting with. This particular piece is called`

`Another part of my inspiration is studying with Fred
Gruber. He has opened, or rather, he has helped me opening the doors technically.
As a result of helping me technically I don't have to pay so much attention
to it. It frees my mind of it. Before I felt like I was technically limited,
you know, having more problems just physically expressing my playing. The
more I study with Freddie, the more I get fluid with that. It's almost
like OK, now that's starting to take care of itself and starting to feel
good, now what else can I do. It's helping my focus to be more in the music.'

`Maybe people heard me when I was playing fast, but they
don't know what it felt like to do it. And sometimes to do it, it felt
uncomfortable. Maybe it didn't sound uncomfortable, but it would feel like
that. And I always asked myself why. I can do it... What Fred would say
is: `well, you heard it, so you could make your body do it, in whichever
way you could do it, but there is probably an easier way. Let's help you
find that easier way, so it actually takes less effort. That's what really
what the study of technique is. It's not so much like to play faster or
cleaner... It's to play easier, so you don't fight you natural body motion.
Finding a way that works most efficiently, and you align with that. Then
it becomes easier and easier.'